The Sūkṣmāgama is a hitherto unpublished and important Śaivāgama dealing with many Śaiva rituals as they are performed in temples. It is held to be one of the twentyeight fundamental scriptures of the Śaivasiddhānta. The 1st volume furnishes a critical edition of the first thirteen chapters, out of a total of about a hundred. The edition is based on the collation of eight paper manuscripts and is prefaced by an introduction (both in English and in Sanskrit) that gives a detailed summary of the edited text. The reader will find here treatment of many rites, such as the puṇyāhavācana (a rite rarely described at length in other scriptures), the preparation of the pañcagavya, rites for the worship of Śiva in temples, the fire worship, and finally a very detailed description of the grand temple festival. The 2nd volume contains descriptions of a variety of rites and ceremonies concerning divinities and humans, mostly performed in the temple. Many of them are in the form of festivals celebrated in honour of Śiva and the Goddess. Others include anointing the Liṅga with a continuous flow of liquids, less well known ceremonies connected with the Goddess, special rites exclusively performed for the sake of kings, as well as ordeals and an interesting and unusual chapter dealing with the organisation of the temple personnel.

Keywords

śaiva, śaivasiddhānta, āgama, ritual

About the author

1) S. Sambandhaśivācārya has been working in the French Institute of Pondicherry since 1969 in the project of critically editing the Śaivāgama-s. Coming from a family of temple priests, well versed in the domain of temple rituals and with a long experience in reading various ancient scripts, he has rendered great help in the first critical editions of āgama-s such as the Mataṅgapārameśvara, Sārdhatriśatikālottara, Rauravottara, Ajita and the Dīptāgama. 2) Bruno Dagens (Professor emeritus, Université Paris-III Sorbonne nouvelle, member of UMR 7528 and associated researcher at the IFP), has translated Mayamata and authored several studies about Indian tradition in South and Southeast Asia. 3) Marie-Luce Barazer-Billoret (Senior lecturer, Université Paris-III Sorbonne nouvelle, member of UMR 7528 and associated researcher at the IFP), is studying Southern Śaivism; she has authored several articles and co-authored the translation of the Rauravāgama, the critical edition of the Dīptāgama and a book on Śiva. 4) T. Ganesan has been working as a Senior Researcher in the French Institute of Pondicherry since 1985. Under his current research project “A Comprehensive History of Śaivasiddhānta in Tamilnadu”, he has published detailed monograph Two Śaiva Teachers of the sixteenth century. Nigamajñāna I and his disciple Nigamajñāna II. The first critical edition of the ancient Śaiva text, Varuṇapaddhati along with the unpublished commentary of Nigamajñāna II is one of his main research publications concerning the Śaiva ritual system. 5) Jean-Michel Creisméas (Ph.D Student, Université Paris III – Sorbonne nouvelle) is currently working on his thesis dealing with “Yoga according to Śaivasiddhānta”.